Planning a Costco grocery haul for 2 athletes eating 2500 + 3000 calories is no joke! Check out these simple options to ensure your meal prep keeps up with your activities (:
Hey heyy! It’s Paragon Coach @erikaelko here to show you how my husband @codywescottgolf and I shop at @costco every single week.
Despite living all over the country, we’ve been shopping exclusively at Costco for our groceries for about 4 years now. We currently live less than five minutes from one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Plus, we love to fill up and save at their gas station, too!
Eating Like An Athlete
We cook and prep about 95% of the food we eat each week and typically dine out no more than 1-2 meals per week. I eat about 160-170g of protein + 2500 calories per day and Cody eats about 200g of protein + 3000 calories per day. For two people who lift, play golf, and compete, we go through quite a bit of food, so Costco works well for us because we can get enough to feed ourselves for the week in one trip. Plus, we LOVE Costco’s meat selection and quality.
Since we get the same things each week, it makes things super easy. Every week I take a quick inventory of what we have left, put a note in my phone, and make the trip. After 2-3 trips to Costco, it becomes very easy to navigate and find everything pretty quickly — we are in and out in less than 30 min.
If I am “on the go” (which is 50% of my week, meeting clients or in appointments), I simply put my prepped food in a glass to-go container and take it with me. We prefer not to eat too many prepackaged foods/bars/etc, simply because we feel and perform better eating the majority of our food from whole food sources.
We also eat desserts like frozen custard, ice cream, donuts, etc on a regular basis. But we prefer to save those for when we dine out (versus having treats all the time in the house).
If you have good food, you will eat good food. Period. Let it be easy y’all ♥️
Simple = sustainable.
Meat & Eggs
93/7 Ground Turkey is easy to cook & super affordable. Toss in a skillet with some taco seasoning (4 oz = 22p 9f).
When it comes to red meat, we love New York Strip Steaks. A little higher in fat, but super flavorful (4 oz = 23p 14f) Toss them in the freezer if you’re not able to cook and eat them right away. Cook these in a skillet, on an outdoor grill, or in a Ninja Food Indoor XL Grill. Avocado oil, salt, and Traeger seasoning are where it’s at!
Thankfully we haven’t had an issue with being able to buy eggs. Remember that yolks are where the goodness is at!
Carbs
Potatoes are super affordable and easy to prepare. We mix it up regularly: yellow potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, and potato medleys. Chop these and toss in olive oil and some seasonings. Roast in an oven until fork tender. If you have an air fryer, definitely use it!
Doesn’t get easier than frozen veggies – the best part is that you don’t have to worry about them going bad. Toss these in a skillet until fork tender. Then top copiously with lots of spices (salt, pepper, everything bagel, onion powder, garlic powder…) and your fat of choice – like butter or olive oil. If you overcook them, they’ll get soggy and gross. Remove from heat when they’re still a lil firm (as they’ll keep cooking a bit) and let them come to room temperature before you store them in the fridge.
Fruit is a great source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. If on a tight budget, frozen is a great option to keep costs down (and smoothies are delicious!)
Other Stuff
We love tortillas. Easy source of carbs, and the perf vehicle for meat or stuff like peanut butter and jelly.
Bubbles or get out. We drink A LOT of Topo Chico and other brands of carbonated zero-calorie bevvies like it’s going out of style in our house.
Interested in 1:1 nutrition coaching?
Follow @erikaelko / hop to her website (www.erikaelko.com)!
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